#palpatine is an abuser

[cptsd-skywalker]

@ those people who consider Anakin to be just as bad or worse than Palpatine, are you ok? Like is everything alright up there? Got to be one of the most out there takes I’ve ever heard.

[shyranno]

Day 3 of drawing Maul until Disney/Lucasfilm notices me and lets me work on Maul Things

[panther-os]

Palpatine wouldn't abuse the Guard directly, at least not in a way they'd realize or remember. Instead, he'd give all his cronies in the Senate free reign to be as cruel as possible and then make himself their savior - the only one who genuinely cared, the only one who genuinely tried to keep them safe. Biotechnology can break, but even in the face of overwhelming evidence, genuine love and loyalty will make you hesitate, will make you suffer in learning the truth and in trying to enact justice - more suffering that a Sith facing down however many troopers and/or Jedi Masters can use to empower themself. Just another small part of the grand plan and all its contingencies and one that's easy enough to carry out with minimal risk from the safety of Coruscant.

[moobrvoobl-moobmoob-oobmpoobroom]

I just find it mind-boggling that some people will reblog things like “Anakin didn’t care about Rex and his men, he wouldn’t listen to Fives just because he was friends with Palpatine” and then in the next post be gushing over Rexwalker/Rexanidala like???? so you agree. Anakin does care about Rex?

[ozarlu-seda]

One thing I think the Jedi vs Anakin blames camps of the Anakin falling camp don't seem to recognize is that combating a grooming effort as zealous and concerted as Palpatine's requires in and of itself a zealous and concerted effort. It cannot be done by accident. Neither the Jedi nor Anakin could have beaten it without at minimum recognizing that its happening and then planning on how to break Anakin out from it.

People like to trade bits of anecdotes and cannon evidence of instances where Anakin had openings to see things or the Jedi played into Sidious' game like aha moments, but they are all ultimately meaningless because an spattering of uncoordinated singular instances of relief will not break the hold of someone as keen to hold onto Anakin as Palpatine was, who was also so good at manipuation. It's just an unfair expectation to place on either party (Anakin or the Jedi).

The Jedi, even if they didn't slip up the ways they did in canon could still have slipped up in other ways that Palpatine would've exploited, because they did not know the abuse was happening and couldn't guard specifically against it. Deprogramming Anakin from Palpatine would have required them to again, at minimum coordinate a plan to do so because anything less and they would've been outgamed.

Same with Anakin. He already started out with limited emotional intelligence, but then to add that onto his limited political acumen and what looks like limited language and tools for fighting abuse specifically? He didn't stand a chance. Anything he could've learned from the Jedi on this matter very obviously paled in comparison to the absolute Armada of control strategies Palpatine flung at him. He literally could not have won without specifically reaching out to get support for breaking from Palpatine's control specifically.

It's true that abuse victims break from their abusers all the time, even really cunning ones, but in all of those cases, they had to at least have had a) the information to recognize what was being done to them, b) the emotional intelligence to make use of that information, c) and resources/community support to actually pull out. Without any of this, you'd only be looking at a miracle if your abuser was at all decicated to keeping you under their thumb. And this is of course a sliding scale. The more determined and smart the abuser is, the more effort it takes for break from their control and the less likely it can be done with isolated acts of kindess, random epiphanies, or short term interventions.

Anakin's treatment by Palpatine is waaay on the difficult to break end of the scale. And Anakin again, is not the most emotionally adept or self aware. He's not skilled enough at deconstructing arguments to not just have all his objections steamrolled by Palpatine every time they come up. He can't hold on to a proper dissent against Palpatine by himself, because even while he's uncomfortable, he doesn’t have to skills to pick apart why he's uncomfortable without someone walking him through it. The Jedi similarily could not have helped Anakin with generalized aids because Palpatine efforts were a specific and targeted attacked.

TLDR: If we take Anakin's fall as the result of the specific and targeted grooming by Palpatine (because GL did draw a horse and got a hippo), neither the Jedi nor Anakin could have stopped it just by their general goodness because that would've been the equivalent of expecting to stop a black ops team from trying to kill you by remembering to lock your doors and not talking to strangers.

[phoenixyfriend]

[rotates a fic concept based on a Frozen fic I read years ago]

(I'll link the fic and explain the premise a the bottom of the post. If you've read Ghost on the Wire, that's my inspo. If you haven't, check the bottom for the summary.) Easy option for the AU in question is Domino twins because [gestures at Echo], buuuuuuuuuuuut I think it would be interesting with Anakin as the kidnapped experiment sibling and Obi-Wan finding him years later.

Consider:

Ahsoka, age 12, is the padawan to Obi-Wan Kenobi, who lost his first padawan seven years ago and has been in mourning and self-doubt since; everyone thinks it's a miracle that he took her on, and she tries not to rock the boat because what if he decides he's not ready for another kid after all?

She's got a weird friend online that… well, if she complains about a senator or a mission, this person hunts down files pointing to questionable behavior by said senators and then dumps them in the Jedi's evidence box.

Since they're anonymously provided, the Jedi can legally use them to gain warrants, etc, because even if the law was broken to achieve it, they didn't do anything illegal, pay anyone to do anything illegal, or encourage anyone to do the illegal thing.

Obi-Wan takes a bit longer than he should to catch on to Ahsoka having a definitely criminal online friend, but decides to allow it so long as she lets him monitor interactions with this one specific person. He realizes that Ahsoka's random mentions of details coincide with certain infodumps, which Ahsoka wouldn't know because she's not privy to the fact that said data dumps happened at all.

War breaks out. Obi-Wan is frequently in a panic, because he already had one underage padawan die under his watch, and he's terrified of it happening again.

Various shenanigans, Ahsoka keeps up correspondence with her friend but it's much more heavily monitored now, in case of security violations. The friend still gives her heads up about suspected Separatist activity based on algorithmic analysis of shipping patterns and the like.

The friend tells Ahsoka he's in trouble. He needs help. Given the amount of information he's been giving the Jedi, they can consider him a confidential criminal informant that needs extraction and could continue being useful (important so they can justify using military resources when the Senate asks about budget expenditures).

They find Anakin, in a very similar setup to S7 Echo

Obi-Wan is. Not okay.

Ahsoka is freaked out by Anakin's physical state but fuck it! Friend! He needs medical help and he's really not exactly cognizant of the world around him.

Get him back to the ship. Get back to the Temple. Get him some medical help.

Figure out what the fuck is going on.

Turns out Anakin was captured on Sidious's orders when he was like... IDK ten. And then underwent experiments under the supervision of the Sith Lord. He still doesn't know who the Sith is, because Sidious saw his chatting with Ahsoka and only allowed it for as long as it wasn't anything too damaging, which means it was all either something that benefited Sidious, or something Anakin only barely managed to hide inside larger data packets (including his final request for help; he's gotten much better at cyber security on his own brain over the years).

But Sidious never did let Anakin know what his real identity is.

IDK where this goes but I do know Anakin is incredibly insistent on helping Ahsoka and the Jedi, and also that Obi-Wan cries on Anakin a lot.

He definitely would NOT be allowed out in the field, into battle, because the amount of physical therapy he needs. Immense. But he's probably with the 501st and 212th as their main data analyst/strategic dude? In this situation, the 501st doesn't technically have a Jedi, they're just a legion under the larger command of Obi-Wan and Cody, with their direct CO being Yularen, but Ahsoka's paired up with them regularly and she is honorary Jedi for the legion and everyone expects to get her officially once she's knighted, if the war lasts that long.

I do know that he chose Ahsoka to befriend because he had a vision of her becoming Obi-Wan's padawan a few years before it happened and went OH. BABY SISTER.

Any fic on this topic would have a heavy focus on Anakin's experiences with disability and recovery.

I feel like, while he can recover from a lot of the muscle atrophy etc, he probably has permanent damage to his bones and general health. He needs mobility aids, maybe a service animal to keep an eye on his physical state. Possibly epilepsy, since there was so much done to him neurologically. He definitely sleeps more than most people, has a very specific dietary plan, and relies a lot on the Force for things like getting things off of shelves.

A lot of this fic would by necessity happen with Anakin in a medical pod, communicating either in chat format or with a speaker. Possibly projected as a hologram approximation of himself despite the real body being in the pod.

Especially early on, he really is just text chat, before the war starts.

I think for the first few months of the war, when Anakin is still just a criminal internet friend Ahsoka happens to have, there are a lot of instances of him slicing into her comm during a mission and offering directions or information while she's like. Three quarters of a mile into a sewage system infil.

He's been on mute this entire time, but someone asks if the others remember which way to go, and he just pops up with "turn left."

It's the first time Ahsoka's ever heard his voice (or rather, an approximation of what he thinks he'd sound like at this age using some synthesizers normally used for waiter droids,) and it scares the crap out of her.

He wants to tease his baby sister! Sure she doesn't know she's his baby sister yet. But it's his obligation as a big brother.

They spend most of those months thinking he's some super cool slicer in a basement lair with eight screens and a bottle of orange soda and, basically, they're imagining Hardison from Leverage.

It's uhhhhh not quite that.

I think Ahsoka's a little betrayed at first that Anakin didn't tell her who he was, but she gets over it in favor of THIS IS MY FAVORITE PERSON LOOK HOW COOL HE IS pretty quickly

"It's my older brother's birthday and if everybody doesn't clap for him I'm going to blow up this entire ship."

Ahsoka: I'm gonna rob a BANK and Skyguy's gonna help! Obi-Wan: Ahsoka please he's still reco-- Anakin: DAMN RIGHT I AM where are we going

A whole lot of the emotional core would be the development for Anakin and Obi-Wan in a context where one's been mourning the other for so many years, and feels guilt for accepting his death instead of searching for him, even though he had evidence of Anakin's death (like "Sidious used Anakin's DNA to feign an accurate corpse burnt to a crisp" levels of evidence).

Obviously, there needs to be a heavy plot regarding figuring who took Anakin, why they did what they did, and whether there's any way to find them again.

I think the Domino twins steal Anakin for shenanigans of their own regularly, in part because they were usually the two with Ahsoka when Anakin popped up and started offering advice unasked.

IDK how I want to do the Rex&Anakin dynamic. That part's still percolating.

I do think Obi-Wan is very… delicate with him? He fusses. Anakin appreciates the part where Obi-Wan regularly tells him he's proud and loves him, but he's quickly very irritated by Obi-Wan treating him like he's made of glass.

Obi-Wan, however, is much more emotionally delicate than in canon, because he lost his master and his padawan within two or so years of each other, and blames himself for both. Part of him is convinced that Anakin also blames him.

(And part of Anakin… does.)

(For giving up on him, instead of searching for him even after evidence of his death came up.)

(Even though he knows, from conversations with Ahsoka before he revealed his identity, that Obi-Wan mourned him for years upon years before he took another student)

There's probably a specific medic whose job is at least 25% "Skywalker stuff."

I feel like it's easy to assign Kix to be Anakin's primary medic (there's a Jedi back at the Temple that's in constant contact) BUT I think it would make sense for there to be someone on hand as an assistant for the day to day, since he's on a military vessel and most of it isn't built in a way that's easy for him to navigate, especially with the Force, so I think it would be interesting to have Dogma assigned as Anakin's temporary care aide.

He's definitely someone who'd thrive on having a detailed list of Things That Need Doing, for a Jedi that has trouble remembering to take the medication that Kix said he needed, or to eat, or what have you.

And Anakin would. Probably have Dogma help him break many laws and regulations. Could be good for him.

Anakin: I want some hot chocolate. Dogma: That's not on the list Kix gave me. Anakin: But I want it. Dogma: ... Anakin: [starts levitating ingredients] Dogma, vibrating and maybe tearing up a bit: SIR PLEASE--

(Obi-Wan can be convinced to give him the hot chocolate. His brain is just going Baby Boy. Baby.)

Dogma makes so many calls to Kix for help keeping Skywalker alive.

Someone suggested he get an exoskeleton-style aid (think Rhodey post-CACW), but I think he does prefer more mundane mobility aids. Like, he's been forcibly teched up for… eight years? It's nice to have something that's just. Not that.

It's a chair with a motor. It's crutches with special padding. It's the Force, sometimes. Yeah he could take a shot at complex external support, but... he'd rather stick with the basics.

It's also like. A separation thing? He still uses his neurological hookup to do data analysis and slicing for the GAR and the Jedi (even though he was told MANY times that he doesn't have to and everyone would like it very much if he just stayed home at the Temple and focused on recovering), but he'd like to be able to ditch the complex tech stuff by choice when he's not at work.

I think Anakin puts a lot of stock in his ability to be useful. He'd want to 'detox' from it, so to speak, for a few months at a time very year or so. Just get out somewhere rural with lots of nature and a manageable number of people, and minimal tech. Regular missions with AgriCorps, maybe.

But he'd still think that, now that he has these skills and connections, it's irresponsible to not use them to help people.

I do not have the energy to write this out as an entire epic, which it probably deserves, but. Concept.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The Frozen fic was ghost on the wire.

Cyberpunk AU. Major element is that some people get neurological hook-ups to the internet and slowly get addicted to it to the point where they lose themselves to it (think the dream addicts in Inception, I guess?) The parents had died early on, and the sisters had been split up Anna made friends with a weirdo online, used this friendship to investigate the suspicious deaths of the parents. Weirdo is an insanely good hacker. Goes on a Recovery mission for the weirdo. Turns out the weirdo is actually Elsa, who was forcibly hooked up to the internet as a weapon? Ish? IDK she's a mega-useful hacker but she's been trapped in a medical pod thing for the past however many years and can't walk. Can barely talk, and regularly gets back inside a medical pod due to the lack of motor function and medical instability, and she needs to speak clearly to plan Cool Heists for the conspiracy investigation.

[gch1995]

Luke should have killed Vader in ROTJ. He should have cut off Vader's hand then said "you betrayed your friends, the Jedi who raised you. You broke Obi-Wan's heart and caused him to live in exile. You killed my sister's family and killed my mother and my aunt and uncle. And now you're going to pay the price, Anakin." And then Luke kills him.

Luke absolutely would have had every right to despise Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker for all the atrocities he committed, enabled, and/or participated in against him, his adoptive guardians, his sister, Obi-Wan, the rest of the Jedi, and many others. I haven’t come across anyone in the Star Wars fandom who genuinely believes that Luke and Leia were in the wrong to have serious issues with their biological father’s atrocious attitudes, behaviors, and crimes. Not even those of us who are Anakin/Vader stans believe that his two children were somehow entitled to just blindly accept and forgiven him for every terrible thing he did to them and many others throughout the galaxy. Of course, they weren’t. Just because Anakin had a tragic backstory, constantly suffered under shitty circumstances of compromised agency under abusive, corrupt, and oppressive authority figures, felt guilt, and eventually felt inspired to at least partially atone for his sins by killing Palpatine to save his son’s life, it doesn’t mean that we think that invalidates all the loss, pain, and suffering he directly caused to both his children and many others throughout the galaxy by victimizing them as Darth VaderIt’s also true that he occasionally committed acts that he knew were wrong of his own volition. He also has occasionally committed crimes against some of his victims out of a personal desire for cathartic release, freedom, protection, and/or vengeance that he wasn’t pressured into doing by corrupt and oppressive authority figures. He occasionally made bad choices that he knew were wrong for himself.

Anakin became a horrendous villain, and, while the compromised agency and shitty circumstances that got him to that point in the first place aren’t his fault, it’s also true that he always retained enough rationality and conscience to know the core difference between right and wrong and feel guilt. Everyone in the fandom agrees that none of Anakin’s many victims were entitled to ever forgive him for his crimes against them throughout the galaxy. We just want it to be understood that it isn’t just his fault alone that he wound up becoming and remaining such a horrible villain.

That being said, committing murder or hurting someone for hatred and revenge vs hurting and killing in self-defense are two different things. While it is true that you are completely in your right to take a stand against abuse, crime, and oppression for freedom and protection, there’s also a line between doing what’s necessary to survive because there’s legitimately no other choice in the moment versus being willing to stoop to that adversary’s same level out of anger, hatred, fear, and revenge. In the prequels, we saw that Anakin went dark and struggled to come back because he fell into the same mindset as those who hurt him and those he loved of “Two wrongs make a right” and “I’ll coldly and indiscriminately commit and enable systematic abuse, crime, and tyranny as necessary ‘for the greater good’ if the authority figures, community, mentors, and politicians in these broken systems I serve tell me to because they don’t offer me much opportunity to feel adequately safe and supported standing up for what’s right within it in battle, anyway, since that would mean taking a risk to trust the other side.”

The feelings of anger, fear, and hatred from constant abuse, oppression, and trauma that never got fully resolved are justifiable on Anakin’s part. Palpatine, Watto, the Tusken Raiders, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Qui-Gonn Jinn, his other elders and mentors in the Jedi Order, and the Republic government he got recruited to serve before he could even have the opportunity to properly understand what he was being signed up for as a child definitely did both enable and/or perpetuate completely acts of systematic abuse, crime, elitism, oppression, and violence against him, his mother, his people, the clones, and their own recruits for their own benefit. Whether their intentions were pure or evil doesn’t matter. They caused a lot of harm and trauma.

It’s the horrendous actions that Anakin becomes willing to take in response to avoid having to deal with confronting those issues bravely, honestly, and honorably that are the problem. It’s not easy for him to do the right things, he has good reason to be angry, and you can make a valid point that many of the crimes he ends up enabling and perpetuating as an adult are things he learned from personal experience as a victim and witness of them from a young age.

Anakin is always at least partially oppressed by a corrupt authority figure. Palpatine pressure him to turn to the dark side by encouraging him to act vengefully to try to avoid and quash those feelings of anger, fear, and hatred that adversaries or potential threats trigger in him, rather than dealing with them. The Jedi he served under weren’t as harsh in their methods and intentions as the Sith. That “greater good” defense mechanism is something Anakin picked up from their teachings to justify doing terrible things out of fear of the unknown and pressure of corrupt authority. Their desire to have control to avoid the dark side and recklessness went into abusive territory multiple times throughout the OT and PT sagas because they became too afraid to actually take the risk to be the heroes for the galaxy they presented themselves as. They usually played the role of heroes in the old Jedi Order when they believed doing so benefitted their dictatorial military superpower organization’s ability to have total control in regards to all force-sensitive individuals and matters in the galaxy, their public reputation, their role as the Republic’s army, and their security. Otherwise, they ignored many of those in need, enabled, perpetuated whatever abuse of power and crime benefitted their “greater good.”

Nonetheless, as an adult Anakin became guilty of wrongdoings when he repeatedly decided to respond to all his anger, fear, and insecurities hypocritically by stooping to the same awful levels as his adversaries did with him and worse throughout his life. Thus, he actually res cycle of systematic abuse, crime, oppression, and vengeance continues with him because he decided to take the easier path of following it.

When Luke was in altercations with Darth Vader where there seemed to be no other way out, he would have been completely in his right to immediately end the duel by swiftly killing his father in self-defense when he had his light saber poised with the threat to kill him. Sure, by the end of ROTJ, we know Anakin’s heart wasn’t really in it to kill Luke for Sidious, if he refused to turn, but he was still threatening to. However, once Luke disarms Darth Vader/Anakin of his mechanical arm and lightsaber, he has the advantage over his father. The self-defense law can only be used when there is absolutely no other way to escape or survive under an adversary or threat in an active altercation. After disarming Vader, the immediacy principle of the self-defense argument is lost for Luke because he’s mitigated the threat of him. It could no longer be the justified as theonly thing he could do to survive because there was no other way to stop him in their altercation when .

What’s more, Luke doesn’t even attempt to kill him out of a sense of duty or protection at all at that point in ROTJ. Luke starts taking a needlessly cruel route by briefly choosing to start beating his disarmed father up with his fists out of feelings of anger and a desire for revenge when he gets the upper hand, which is why Sidious points out “Yes, yes, you’re becoming like him.”

While we’re never obligated to forgive, trust, or take back those who hurt us terribly in relationships, it is also true that most adults who grow up to be enablers and/or perpetrators of abuse, crime, and tyranny against other people had to have the influence(s) to be that way built up from within them over time in relationships with others, which often began throughout their childhoods or very young adulthoods. Hurting people will become increasingly willing to hurt others needlessly, as they have been hurt by others, if they repeatedly decide to deal with their anger, insecurities, and trauma under shitty circumstances and adversity by stooping to the same level as those who hurt them to try to maintain and take control back because it’s easier than taking a risk to do the right thing by being vulnerable.

Luke caught himself before it was too late when Palpatine pointed out he was “becoming like him,” but giving in to an desire for control, revenge, and/or security by stooping to the same level as those who hurt you when faced with the opportunity to do so because it’s easier than actually taking the risk to address those issues and face them bravely, honorably, and openly, is what creates very angry, broken, controlling, dangerous, hateful, and insecure abusers and criminals down the road. They see that it’s such an easy feat to commit acts of “necessary” abuse, crime, and revenge to immediately avoid and shut down anyone or anything that acts as an adversary or potential threat to themselves or those they care about, but they only gain a short-term sense of catharsis in the heat of the moment. In the long-term, though, their anger, depression, hatred, insecurities, and trauma hasn’t actually been resolved at all by their decisions to stoop to their adversaries levels to completely avoid, control, and/or destroy everyone and everything that causes those issues in the moment. Instead, they end up making things worse for others around them, and end up hating themselves more in the long run. Yet, they keep allowing for and doing terrible things that can/could allow them to avoid conflict in the short-term as the years go on because it becomes an addiction that keeps getting enabled by others in Star Wars until Luke comes along. It’s what happened to Anakin in the prequels. It’s what happened to the overall Jedi Order and Republic of the prequels with their increasingly obsessive and unhealthily “greater good” and “us versus them” mentality.

No one in the SW fandom on here has ever blamed Luke and Leia for having serious issues with their biological father’s many atrocities, regardless of his constantly tragic and shitty life circumstances. Aside from the fact that they see he’s Sidious’s attack/guard dog, for the most part, they never even witnessed all the abuse, loneliness, oppression, and trauma he experienced before he fell to the dark side. Even with that, though, the point is not that Luke and Leia are supposed to excuse Anakin for all of his crimes and wrongdoings because he is their biological father who they eventually learn suffered constant tragedy under lifelong shitty circumstances from which safely escaping was always compromised. The point of Luke ultimately choosing to stop angrily and vengefully beating Anakin/Vader to a bloody pulp before he can kill him after he gains the upper hand in their duel in ROTJ is about breaking the generational cycle in his predecessors of enabling and perpetuating rampant “necessary” systematic abuse, oppression, violence, and vengeance without much hesitation at all costs to gain short-term catharsis, peace, and security against any and all conflict or potential conflict, which actually led to greater conflict in the long-term instead because they all became too afraid to actually risk doing the right thing most of the time under pressure with shitty influences and limited to nonexistent healthy support options outside of these broken systems they grew up in and got recruited to serve under pressure until then.

[like-sands-of-time]

Idk man I'm a little mad we got one dying kiss between soulmates out of 6 hours of film and no future for them, it just feels insanely unsatisfying? I guess?

Was that meant to be a happy ending?? Her other half is dead .. story rules dictate she can't just go on and be happy with her other half dead, not after they actually said it instead of leaving it unspoken. They have some force bond. Dyads. Equals, two halves of one whole. Balance between light and dark. First in generations they said. No way she's just Fine after his death. No way she's Balanced after his death, what? How?

[antianakin]

So I'm not the world's biggest Doctor Who fan or anything, I haven't done more than Tumblr watch it in years, but I happened across a quote from the Christopher Eccleston season that struck me as an interesting quote to use to discuss Anakin, his choice to save Luke, and why it doesn't really work for me.

You let one of them go but that’s nothing new. Every now and then a little victim’s spared because she smiled, ’cause he’s got freckles. ‘Cause they begged. And that’s how you live with yourself. That’s how you slaughter millions. Because once in awhile—on a whim, if the wind’s in the right direction—you happen to be kind.

-- Doctor Who, Boom Town

I don't remember the context of the quote really, so I'm not going to discuss that.

But that bit about how one small act of kindness doesn't really... mean anything? THAT'S what's getting me here.

This is why Darth Vader isn't redeemed. Because yeah, sure, he did one kind thing. But Luke is probably not the first random person he decided to spare because, on a whim, he decided to just let someone run or escape.

The one act of kindness isn't truly about the person on the receiving end of it anyway, it's about HIM, about living with HIMSELF. Because he wants to believe he's a hero even though he's doing evil selfish things and he KNOWS he's doing evil selfish things but he can't face that so he just keeps telling himself he's a hero, and it's probably easier to tell himself that if, every so often, when the wind's going the right direction, he decides to be kind.

But it's still selfish.

Saving Luke is still selfish. Because he wants to be a hero TO LUKE, he doesn't want to live WITHOUT Luke, so he saves him. He saves him so he can say "tell your sister you were right." He lets himself die so he doesn't have to live with the consequences of anything he's done. That's how he slaughters millions and dies thinking of himself as the hero still, after everything.

[marvelstars]

Palpatine & Anakin Skywalker

This is one of the more long standing relationships on Star Wars, it bassically takes over Anakin´s life pre and post Vader transformation, there´s a lot that could be said about it but today I am going to tackle the psycological aspect of it.

First off, Palpatine takes a lot of time to firmly establish himself as one of Anakin´s parental figures and the tools he uses for this end are psycological abuse, which goes on even after his fall to the darkside.

Psycological abuse: Breaking someone with words instead of punches, to dominate unfairly.

The long term stress can actually exhaust the body to the point of causing physical damage, even to vital organs. But sadly it's not recognized by the police and doctors, so the victim can end up being the one locked up in a mental institution. The worst abuse is gaslight and is sadly done by health care too, by shaming and invaludating your rightfully sad emotions.

Don't allow disrespect or they will do worse than kill you. They will destroy who you are, your feelings, your self esteem, your joy, your capacity to run away by making you think you deserve pain and that's what love is (it's not), they will destroy your will to live and turn your life into hell.

It's one of the the true causes of "mental illness". It's an imbalanced between your needs and limits. (Neglect and abuse.) Don't allow abuse in any form, psychological can be worse than physical, it's harder to notice, stop and heal. And it's often the start of physical, sexual, financial abuse later.

There are many examples in the comics and movies of Palpatine doing this but I will chose one in which Anakin and Palpatine started hanging out, Anakin is 13 year old here.

What makes Palpatine´s manipulation so effective here is that he isn´t working using lies per se, he uses the corruption of the Republic system, it´s Senators involved in keeping slavery or the very real distrust the Jedi Order has concerning Anakin´s future, factors that are already there to make Anakin believe Palpatine´s understanding of the goverment/Jedi is the only one valid because he´s the "one honest politician who cares about Anakin" Anakin respects the Chancellor a lot but also questions him, take in consideration talks like this one were had between them for around 10 years between Episode I and Episode II.

Their first meetings, when Anakin was a child were allowed by the Jedi Order and programed by Palpatine, Anakin didn´t have much choice in the matter even if he does like the Chancellor, respects him and comes to love him as a trusted mentor/parental figure.

The reason why this kind of manipulation is so dangerous is because it´s very subtle, the people around could mistake the person/victim of psycological abuse as the one responsible of their own abuse, which is what ultimately happens to Anakin.

Obi-Wan, for example, takes Anakin and Palpatine´s relationship as an actual friendship where Anakin is getting benefices for being close to the Chancellor, this is most obvious in ROTS where part of the Jedi Council distrust of Anakin is because the Chancellor effectively gave them the Order of getting Anakin inside the Council, they believe Anakin wanted in and is using his influence when that´s is false and in practice this gives Anakin the perception the Council is manipulating him to spy on his friend and Clone Wars established the precedent with Raako Hardeen, that the Jedi Council is willing to use Anakin percepcion or feelings for political or war purposes which only reinforced Palpatine´s words about the Jedi not appreciating Anakin as a person or as a member of the Order.

Add to this Palpatine putting Padme and Anakin on opposite places of the political espectrum, because by having Anakin apparently support his political decisions, Padme considers her and her group of Senators who want Palpatine to give up his especial powers because of the Clone War, his political influence handed to him by the Senate are in opposition of Anakin´s current political beliefs. When Anakin in fact agrees with them about Palpatine no longer needing those powers, tried to talk about this with the Chancellor, only to be told Padme and her political group are seeking a coup agaisnt him, which they in theory are doing by building the begginings of the rebel alliance.

So Padme starts hidding from Anakin her meetings with the Senators and Anakin doesn´t tell her about the Chancellor thinking they are organizing a coup and him being worried for Padme because of this.

Palpatine has effectively isolated Anakin from his main loved ones, Padme and Obi-Wan, leaving only the Chancellor as the trusted confidant/mentor and he also introduced seeds of doubt about Anakin for Obi-Wan and Padme, which reinforces Anakin´s sense of paranoia about his closest people being agaisn´t him or lying to him, because this is indeed happening but not for the reasons he believes.

All this leads to Anakin´s complete breakdown, psycotic break in the middle of ROTS, Lucas even added other signals like lack of sleep and food because of his nightmares of Padme dying all this because Palpatine needed Anakin emotionally broken for him to ever consider choosing the darkside.

I could go on and on, there are some expecific circunstances there but this post is long enough.

Bonus:

[lbibliophile-sw]

Good Commanders Come When Called

Also on AO3 @whumptober - day 3: "Make it stop", day 12: "I'm up, I'm up" @clonefandomevents - Coruscant Guard bingo: sickness/injury

Bi-beep. Bi-beep.

Zontal startles as the alert rings through the comparatively quiet Coruscant Guard medbay. It is not a particularly loud alarm, or piercing, but it is insistent and impossible to ignore.

Bi-beep. Bi-beep.

Only one comm in the Guard has that particular tone, and for only one sender. The Chancellor is summoning his Marshal Commander, and will not be kept waiting.

Bi-beep. Bi-beep.

Zontal looks over at where said Commander is collapsed in one of his beds. Fox had returned from a 30-hour blackout mission less than an hour ago, and had fallen asleep almost before Zontal finished removing his armour for him.

Bi-beep. Bi-beep.

He is not injured too badly at least. This time. Nothing to justify using their meagre supply of bacta. But he is bruised and battered all over with more than one limb moving gingerly, and his usual state of exhaustion-dehydration-malnutrition further exacerbated.

Bi-beep. Bi-beep.

Fox groans, trying ineffectually to bury his head in the thin pillow as the familiar alert draws him inexorably away from peaceful oblivion. He weakly bats a hand in Zontal’s direction.

“M’ke it st’p.”

Bi-beep. Bi-beep.

And here’s the catch. Zontal could.

He could bury the comm under a pile of blankets, pretend they’d never received the message and leave it a problem for future-Fox. Give him a few more hours of sleep before the rest of the world demands its due with interest.

Bi-beep. Bi-beep.

He could answer the comm, message the Chancellor that Fox is currently medically unfit for duty. It’s not even exactly a lie; Zontal had already been considering setting him up with an IV, and a rotation or two of forced bedrest would do him wonders. But the Guard doesn’t work that way. As long as you can be vertical and mostly cognizant, you are on shift. And you continue working until you no longer meet those criteria.

Bi-beep. Bi-beep.

He could answer the comm, and send one of the other Commanders in Fox’s place. Either openly or borrowing Fox’s distinctive armour. There was a time when he might have. Had. But it wasn’t worth the cost, and now that option is now reserved only for direst emergency.

Bi-beep. Bi-beep.

Because when the Chancellor calls, he expects Commander Fox to come. He will not accept excuses, he will not accept delays. And any attempt at either brings consequences.

Bi-beep. Bi-beep.

“Fox...” One hand brushes through Fox’s curls to rest on his shoulder, the other is holding his vambrace with its still-beeping comm. “I’m sorry. I can make it stop, for now. But are you sure you need me to?”

Bi-beep. Bi-beep.

Bi-beep. Bi-.

Zontal hands Fox his armour.

[cptsd-skywalker]

Have I talked about how much this pic gives me the creeps? Cause it gives me the

Creeps.

[firefly-fez]

could anyone else just feel their blood boil at palpatine saying “if the clones will just blindly follow orders” as his excuse to decommission them when we all know damn well that’s exactly what he created them for. that’s what he made them do, blindly follow orders. that’s the only thing he ever needed them or wanted them to do. blindly follow orders: eliminate the jedi threat by being brainwashed to kill their best friends, to blindly. follow. orders. he never wanted them to serve the republic, or the jedi, he wanted them to accrue enough military tactical experience so they would have all the intelligence they needed when the time came. he never wanted them to serve the jedi, he wanted them to kill the jedi. he told them they were born to be loyal to the republic and groomed them to destroy it. and that job is now done so he casts them aside using the earliest available excuse that they are an inferior class of soldiers because they will blindly follow orders.

[that-gay-jedi]

Disability often comes with a massive rearranging of identity, even when there's little or no change to one's physical appearance. For Anakin this coincided with the absolute shattering of his identity that was 1. Operation Knightfall and 2. Mustafar, and with the reforging of one's identity traditional of Sith apprentices. To further disrupt his prior identity, he now essentially has two bodies- the metal monster seen by the outside world, and the injured remnants of his organic body spending so much time in bacta.

So, like with any radical alteration of identity, there's going to be an inevitable transition phase, which may be long or short, and I'm willing to bet his definitely lasted longer than initially recovering from surgery and physically adapting to the suit.

It's no wonder he no longer sees himself as human, especially since Palpatine had total control over his entire transition phase. That's... well, so there are certain psychological effects of abuse that almost exclusively happen to children because adults who endure the same mistreatment already have a formed identity. But the identity of an adult can still be disrupted or even dissolved in various ways.  And one common model of the process of indoctrination into a cult is that a person's previous identity and worldview are systemically "unfrozen", molded to fit the cult, and then "refrozen." The Sith are generally thought of as a cult.

The fact that he can even remember Anakin Skywalker at all, let alone still be him, and eventually shoulder the guilt well enough to come back to the light- just, Jesus fucking Christ. Pals, I could not.

[izzythehutt]

Do you ever think about the fact that the longest intimate, close, continuous relationship in Anakin's life.............was with Palpatine?

[avisisisis]

Friendly reminder that Anakin Skywalker is an abuse victim